Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,86
her ability to use it to communicate with Topher, but then the vibration shifted to a different frequency—a fluctuating buzzing that she could hear.
“Topher?”
There was no response.
Jayna tried something else.
The coin was vibrating to her, trying to communicate. She needed to create a buzzing within the coin, something that would vibrate and allow her to respond to Topher.
She pushed through the coin and the buzzing shifted.
She pushed again, this time being intentional about how she did it, and focused on his name, tracking that through her power.
“Topher,” she said, adding that into the spell and trying to communicate to him.
“Jayna?” His voice came strangely. It seemed to fill her mind, as if he were coming up through the coin, before reaching her ears. “How is this possible?”
“I don’t have time, Topher.” She tried to make sure she maintained the connection, but now that she had formed the linking to the enchantment, she still had power. “Your enchantment works. It’s incredible. I need your help. Actually, I need Eva’s help.”
“Why? Why didn’t you just come back—”
“Topher. I need you to send Eva to the outpost. I’m trapped in a cell beneath the outpost. She can find it, but she’s going to have to get Char to help.”
Jayna had no idea if Char would even help, but if he refused . . .
She had no doubt that Eva would fight her way through.
“I’m asking her now. She’s not sure she wants to.”
“Tell her that it was not just an enchantment. There is another Ashara.”
There was silence for a moment, then another vibration came. “What’s an Ashara?”
“Is that your question or hers?”
“That’s mine. Eva got up and disappeared. I don’t know where she went.”
“Did she leave?”
“I can’t tell. She’s been drinking. I tried to tell her not to, especially when you didn’t come back after leaving, but . . .”
Jayna squeezed on the coin. If Eva had been drinking, there might not be much she could do, though at the same time, she had seen Eva survive drinking incredible amounts and still come around much better than Jayna would’ve been able to do if she had been the one drinking. “If she’s still there, tell her that she needs to go to the lower level. That’s where I’m trapped. My magic doesn’t work here.”
“Your magic? But you’re a powerful sorcerer. And whatever else you are.”
The vibration within the coin was starting to fade.
“Something’s happening,” Topher said.
Jayna squeezed on the coin. She needed it, needed the communication, but she also needed the connection she had within the coin to access her magic.
“We don’t have much time left, Topher. Enchantments have a limited lifespan before they’re spent. I’m going to need you to go silent. I’m going to need to borrow the power that remains in this.”
“Be safe,” he said.
With that, he faded, though she could still feel a vibration within the coin.
The connection was still there, the power she needed, and she tapped into it. As she called that energy across from him, she could feel something, though the longer she held on to it, the more she began to wonder if she’d be able to keep hold of it. It might fade completely.
Jayna tried drawing on more energy, but the linking spell—and the enchantment—began to fade. She had one last thing she could attempt.
She focused on Char.
She could feel the energy from the linking spell she shared with him deep within her mind, and with the residual power that remained with the connection she shared with Topher, she plucked on it. She did it differently than she had before, and instead plucked it in the same way she had when she created a vibration within the coin. She tried to use the spell in a way that incorporated a clearer sense of communication.
“I need your help, Char,” she sent.
The linking spell with Char was the most solid piece of magic she had, and she didn’t even know if it was possible for her to have that severed. She also didn’t know if it was possible to communicate through it. If it were, then she would have done it before. Of course, she had never had the need before. But now there was desperation within her.
“I need your help, Char,” she repeated.
Each time she said it, she tried to slide more power toward him along that connection, but there was no response. In fact, it felt as if his connection to her grew fainter.